Although largely absent from modern accounts of the Industrial Revolution, watches were the first mass produced consumer durable, and were Adam Smith's pre-eminent example of technological progress. In fact, Smith makes the notable claim that watch prices may have fallen by up to 95 per cent...

A popular misconception among scholars of Adam Smith holds that he thought that government intervention was a good and natural aspect of civil society. Scholars who have this misconception argue that Smith often portrays politicians and government intervention as being benevolent. But there are...

This article explores different analytical approaches to institutions in economic theory and history. The first part shows how mainstream economics embraced this theme and the influence this new analytical approach had on the New Economic History. The second part analyzes some heterodox...

This paper surveys the small, yet growing, literature that uses game theory for economic history analysis. It elaborates on the promise and challenge of applying game theory to economic history and presents the approaches taken in conducting such an application. Most of the essay, however, is...

This paper investigates the origin and evolution of the concept of the industrial district. The idea of industrial district is quite widespread in modern industrial economics and in business studies, with a variety of meanings and typologies. Indeed the real original conceptualisation dates back...